26.6.08

WORLD SNOOKER SILENT OVER 'BRIBE' CLAIM

World Snooker are refusing to confirm or deny claims that a member of the main tour has been fined £2,000 after being found guilty of offering an opponent £1,000 to lose the match they were playing.

This is a very serious allegation. The player would have been in breach of rule 2.8 of section 2.c of the WPBSA handbook, which states “a member shall not directly or indirectly solicit, attempt to solicit or accept any payment or any form of remuneration of benefit in exchange for influencing the outcome of any game of snooker or billiards.”

I should stress that the player said to be involved is not a household name. I shall not name him until further investigations have been completed.

Peter Francisco was banned for five years for losing 10-2 to Jimmy White in the first round of the 1995 World Championship. This was the scoreline on which huge amounts of money had been placed pre-match.

Quinten Hann was banned for eight years and fined £10,000 for agreeing – on tape – to receive £50,000 for losing a match, although the scam was called off because it had been initiated not, as Hann apparently believed, by a betting cartel but by a national newspaper.

In this latest case, it is claimed the player was found guilty by the WPBSA disciplinary committee but will be allowed to continue playing on the circuit.

I have asked World Snooker to clarify this - or deny it if it isn't true - but they are making no comment.

What other sport conducts its disciplinary affairs in such shadowy secrecy?

In tennis, when claims of match-fixing were made an independent report was commissioned, published earlier this week.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Minister for Sport in the British government, stated he hoped those found guilty of this offence would be jailed for up to two years under new legislation.

Surely if there has been malpractice, a governing body should not only punish those involved but do so in public to prove they are weeding out those players who break the rules?

22 comments:

Could not agree more. The WPBSA need to more open and transparent,the secretive nature with which they conduct their business only lends people to believe that something is not quite right. Far better to be open and deal with things there and thenJohn

The player should be named and shamed. Everyone inside the game knows who it is and what happened.What sort of message does this send to other players? If a player can afford to offer a £1000 bribe then a £2000 fine is hardly likely to impact on his life style or attitudes.

I think it's really up to the players to start standing up to the authorities more. They do a lot of complaining but take no action. Surely they could force such information into the public domain or demand a change in the rules so that this sort of thing was not allowed to be kept secret. As a more immediate short term measure how about if they all refuse to play this player in any and all matches?

It shows once more the incompetence of this board. Must be the worst governing body in any sport or organization (together with the darts, BDO). I dont favour break aways in any sport, but think its time in snooker would be the best solution to save it and develop its potential.

Quinten Hann gets publicly shamed and hounded out of the game for admitting to the possibliity of "throwing" a match if the conditions were favourable (but not actually agreeing to "throw" a specific match, or actually even "throwing" a match)- yet this person is shrouded in secrecy?

I don't know who it is, but I wish someone would tell me! It seems, judging by the "deleted posts", that the player was named and shamed right here- albeit temporarily.

I think I've worked out who it is now. It can only be one of 2 players, and the post above points directly to 1 of them in particular. Only 2 players who finished in the top 8 of the 2006-7 PIOS, actually needed the points (in event 8) to get there, and one of them won the event to finish comfortably in the top 8. The other just about scraped in....

Surely we need ALL the facts before we reach a conclusion?It certainly looks very bad for snooker and WPBSA but all the facts have to be released.Has the player appealed against the decision?Did the player admit the offence?What mitigating circumstances led to the "paltry" fine?There are more questions than answers so far and that is the fault of World Snooker.The thing that staggers belief is that the players except this mismanagement with hardly any complaints.Snooker has had many exemplary players over the years and they are continually let down by successive boards.I'm hoping that this is the straw which breaks the camels back but fear it is just another episode in the continued mismanagement of our great sport.Des

If these allegations are correct the player in question should be banned for life from the professional game- the only reason I can imagine that this has not happened is fear of opening a can of worms.

WSA have now issued a statement confirming that the player in question was Matthew Selt and that, contrary to rumours of a £2000 fine, the case was dismissed through lack of evidence. They say no further statements will be issed on this matter!.